Reviews

On Center

Are Mixed

Shopping Complex

Would Bring Jobs

August 5, 1994|By SARAH RAGLAND Staff Writer

BOCA RATON — When it's time to go shopping in the city, there's no shortage of options.

Why build more stores here? Some residents say "Why not?'' The proposal by Homart Development Corp. to build a 500,000-square-foot shopping center on a 62-acre site on Congress Avenue is drawing mixed reaction from area residents and businesspeople.

Homart this week signed a deal with Knight Enterprises, owner of the property, to build a center anchored by a 16-screen movie theater and nine large stores, mostly superstores such as Home Depot.

Representatives from the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations left a meeting with Bill Knight on Thursday with generally favorable reviews.

"This seems like a good use for the site," said Lenore Wachtel, vice president of the association, an umbrella group for 24 homeowner groups. "We don't feel it will hurt downtown, or hurt traffic because it is right at the end of a highway exit."

Knight came to the meeting armed with statistics aimed at showing Boca Raton could profit from the deal. According to Knight, Boca Marketplace would:

-- Create 1,500 jobs and an annual payroll of $23.1 million, which boils down to an annual salary of about $15,400 per employee.

-- Add $50 million to the tax base.

-- Pay $1.1 million a year in real-estate taxes, including nearly $200,000 a year to the city.

-- Pay $6.7 million in sales taxes.

A year ago, when Knight Enterprises was negotiating with a mall developer to build a 1.3 million-square-foot mall at the site, downtown business and property owners were quick to denounce the plans.

But this time, the response from downtown businesspeople is cautious, even optimistic.

"My feeling, personally, is that what is being proposed won't affect downtown," said Michelle Steele, president of the Downtown Business Alliance, an organization made up primarily of mom and pop shops.

"Downtown is made up of specialized, unique stores, and this is completely different," she said. "I feel very positive about it, opening this [center) will help the tax base, and I don't see how it would hurt us."

City Council member Steven Abrams also downplayed the threat the center might pose to downtown businesses.

"If anything, this will compete with the stores out on [U.S.) 441," he said.

Abrams also suspects that, contrary to Boca Raton's high-brow image, people here like discount stores. "The new Junior League hangout is the Target store," he said.

Charlie Siemon, a planner and attorney with Siemon, Larsen and Marsh, whose clients include Mizner Park Developer Tom Crocker, is more pessimistic.

"Am I opposed? I can't say because I don't have the details. Am I nervous? Yes, I'm nervous. Very nervous," he said.

Siemon said that if the center includes a large bookstore and a movie theater, it could threaten the success of Mizner Park, which remains the heart of the city's redevelopment effort.

Siemon has philosophical concerns as well.

"We have a market that has basically stopped growing," he said. "Disposable income is not growing. We are losing high-paying jobs at IBM. Do we really want to replace them with retail jobs that pay minimum wage?" Homart will need the approval of four of the five City Council members because the proposal calls for a change in the comprehensive plan and the rezoning of the property from office to retail use. The review and approval process is expected to take at least six months.